YiHyun & SaeBom was slowly drifting away. Not because they liked to or they wanted to but because the circumstances were leading them to do so. SaeBom was preparing for the Civil service exam and YiHyun was passing his time with other destroyed baseball players. People who were sharing the same fate as him. It was only natural that he could share his pain with them and that was the only reason he was enjoying their company. His life was indeed a total mess. He couldn't play baseball anymore, SaeBom was nowhere near him for the latest months and the cherry on the top of the cake? His parents recently announced to him that they will have to move to the States, thanks to his dad promotion and they were waiting for his answer if he was going to follow or not. YiHyun had no idea what to answer to them. He didnt know if he wanted to go or not. He didn't know if he wanted to leave his country and mostly he didn't want to leave SaeBom. He was very well aware, that a life in States could offer him way more than a life in S. Korea ever could but what if he had a chance to have a life with SaeBom? This was just priceless. A chance. If he left, he will lose it forever.
YiHyun huffed as he took another blow from his cigarette, a habit he had adopted quite recently. When his mind was full and empty on the same time he would light up a cigarette, allowing the smoke to drift his thoughts away and dream of SaeBom. Dream of her smile on a sunny morning, her glowing eyes watching the sunset, her long hair falling freely in her arms...
He always longed to touch those hair and smell them. Her hair was possibly the most attractive thing about her to YiHyun. Probably it was the way she always liked to flip them and their aroma reached to his nostrils. They smelled like jasemine, a flower of the spring. A spring flower that could be so much like her.
He finished his ciggarete and decided to light up one more. Today his burden was huge, it was his deadline. He needed to announce his decision to his parents tonight. The problem was that he still had no decision. If he decided to leave with them, he would possibly never see SaeBom again and if he stayed here, he had no idea how to go on with his life. He took another blow and threw the smoke out of his system.
Through the smoke he could see a blurry figure approaching him with quick steps and before he even realized it, his ciggarete was taken out of his hands and thrown down at the street. YiHyun blinked twice before finally understanding that the person who disturbed his smoking was none other than the person he wanted to see the most. SaeBom!!! SaeBom was right in front of his eyes.
" SaeBom-a" he addressed her finally smiling because she was there.
SaeBom glared at him. " Ya, Jung Yi Hyun. I didn't save you so you could die later on by cancer. Don't you know those shit are pure death?" she was totally pissed, YiHyun could see it from the way her vain was popping into her neck.
" I'm sorry Bom-a" he said and lowered his head like a puppy who just got scolded from his owner.
" Aish" SaeBom huffed. " Since when have you developed this deadly habit?" she asked glaring at him even more. YiHyun sensed like she could rip him in parts only with her eyes.
" It's been time..." he said scratching his neck.
" Why did you start this?" she asked showing the ciggarete that she had previously thrown away.
" At first it was just for fun, because the other guys did so too" he admitted. " But then I felt like I was needing it, I was frustrated, alone and you weren't here.." he suddenly said not realizing what he had just confessed .
" What do you mean? I'm always here. You could have just called if you wanted to see me." SaeBom stated.
YiHyun just looked at her and then took from his bag the packet of cigarettes and light up one more completely ignoring all the previous words she said.
" Hyuna... " SaeBom called at him in a sweet tone.
" Forget it. "." I need to go home" he said and started walking away.
He didn't know why he was behaving like this to her. Was he mad at her? To himself for being such a coward? He didn't know but he knew he missed her and now seeing her made him weak and was troubling him even more in his decision.
YiHyun suddenly stopped in his trucks when SaeBom grabbed him by his arm making him turn to look at her and her fist came in contact with his arm making him flinch.
" Were you really not going to tell me you are leaving?" SaeBom yelled at him.
YiHyun widened his eyes. How did she know.
" Were you planning to leave without telling me? Without saying Goodbye?" she shouted and her fist punched his arm again. But this time he didn't flinch, instead he grabbed her fist on his hands and closed it on his palms looking at her deep on her eyes.
" I would never do that " he reassured her. " I wouldn't " he whispered at her making her almost calm down. Her jaw though was still tightened and her eyes was still killshots but her hand was not a fist anymore. It was now holding his hand too and she was taking breath after breath trying to calm herself down.
" I swear if you did that, I would hunt you down" she threatened and YiHyun laughed leaving her hand free.
" Sure Bom-a, go ahead" he said still laughing.
SaeBom laughed too and like this they found themselves walking together towards YiHyun's home.
" So.. When are you leaving?" SaeBom asked munching her lips.
" Actually I haven't decided yet if I will leave or stay. I'm supposed to answer tonight but I seriously have no idea what to do" YiHyun admitted raising his arms.
" Are you crazy? It's the States. Everyone dreams of a life to the States" SaeBom exclaimed.
" Not me. I never did and now I'm in dillema" he said scratching his neck. " Would you go?" he asked her. She popped her head up & down.
" I think you should go" she suddenly said bitting her lip.
YiHyun had the feeling that it was not was she trully wanted.
" Won't you miss me?" he smirked.
SaeBom laughed. " It will be a great riddance" she said smiling showing her whole teeth.
" Not going then" YiHyun said, giving her a half smile and run his way inside his home.
He could hear SaeBom shouting his name as he was walking away and it was bringing a bigger smile on his face. He took the packet of cigarettes from his jacket and threw it at her saying " I don't need it anymore". He could definitely feel that SaeBom was smiling at him even though he didn't turn his head to look at her.
When he entered his home, his parents were sitting at the living room and they seemed to be engrossed in a conversation. However, YiHyun was now ready to disturb their peace by announcing his decision.
" I'm not going" he screamed and started running to his room. His mom barely managed to understand what he said.
" What did you say Hyun?" his father asked.
" I'm not going to the States" he screamed more and closed the door of his room behind him.
Getting inside he run to his office, opened all his drawers trying desperately to find that one photo he had of her. And there she was, under his math book. It was a photo of her looking at the flowers and smiling. A photo she never learned YiHyun managed to take of her. It was the only photo he had of her. And there she looked the prettiest. He was not the best photographer and his camera was very old but SaeBom made him look like a professional and his camera to be high digital. That glowing was her smile that you could see the light blinding your eyes.
He smiled in the memory of that day. He always thought SaeBom was not fond of flowers because she was looking nothing like all of those common girls who loved the flowers, the fluffy bears, the red hearts, the romantic poems and words of love. SaeBom always looked like she was very far away from that image but YiHyun got surprised to know that her favorite flower was the white jasemine and she had a favorite fluffy bear from her childtimes that was calling it Dolby. That day they had visited the Jeju Island in a school trip and SaeBom was so much mesmerized in all the yellow flowers that was covering the countryside of Jeju, that her eyes was glowing. She looked like she was one of them too. A flower between the flowers. YiHyun had taken many pics of her that day but most of them were blurry and moved, except that one.
He felt like this simple photo of her was holding his whole heart. How could he ever be able to leave her?
He couldn't. His heartbeats told him that, the moment he saw her big doe eyes looking at him. He felt devastated in even the though of it. A life without SaeBom? Without her smile, her long black hair, her jasmine aroma, even her punches and her glares? Could he live without them? He couldn't and he knew it very well. A life without her was a total nightmare. A nightmare he had no strength to walk into, and he wouldn't. He would stay here, next to SaeBom because this was the only right place for him to stay...